PD-L1 expression and CD8+ T cell infiltration predict a favorable prognosis in advanced gastric cancer

Abstract

Advanced gastric cancer (AGC) has high morbidity and mortality in East Asia, and it is urgent to explore new treatments to improve patient prognosis. Programmed death-1 (PD-1)/programmed death-ligand 1 (PD-L1) inhibitors have exhibited remarkable activity in clinical trials and were approved by the FDA for clinical therapy in several types of tumors. Here, we evaluated PD-L1 expression and T cell infiltration in AGC. Positive tumor PD-L1 expression was detected in 171 AGCs (33.60%) out of 509 AGCs. PD-L1 expression was positively correlated with CD8+ T cell infiltration. Then, PD-L1 and CD8A mRNA expression was analyzed using gastric cancer data from the TCGA database, confirming a positive correlation. Patient survival was assessed according to PD-L1 status and the T cell infiltration density. PD-L1 expression and a high density of CD8+ T cells in AGCs were associated with improved prognosis, whereas no significant difference was noted between PD-1 and CD3 expression. In contrast, a high density of FOXP3+ T cells in AGCs indicated a poor prognosis. Multivariate Cox regression analysis revealed that CD8+ T cell density acts as an independent predictor of overall survival (OS) in AGC patients. Taken together, this study further highlights targets for immune checkpoint-based therapy in AGC.